He pressed ‘talk’ and put the phone to his ear. As the phone rang, Meg, Llywelyn, and Goronwy sidled closer together. Goronwy and Llywelyn clutched Meg around the waist while she slipped her arms under their cloaks and held on.
Even as Natasha picked up with a distant Hello? Callum lowered the phone.
“Don’t do it!” he said.
“Sir?” Natasha’s voice came from Callum’s phone.
Callum wanted to answer but the situation was too delicate. A wrong move by him might encourage them to jump. If Callum couldn’t come up with the right thing to say, that headline on the front page of the national rag was going to be written after all.
Then feet pounded in the corridor above him, the metal fittings of boots rapping loudly on the stones. Callum didn’t know if Meg heard the noise or if it was an instinctive twitch from him that gave the game away. As Meg bent her knees, Callum dropped his phone, took a step, and threw himself forward in a flying tackle. He managed to wrap his arms around Llywelyn’s shins, but he was too late. Their feet had left the balustrade. Their combined weight and Callum’s momentum carried him over the wall.
The water rushed four stories below him. As he fell, seconds passed as if they were days. He forgot to breathe. And then a great chasm of blackness opened beneath him and swallowed him whole.
Callum hit the river and went under.
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The Renegade Merchant Page 27